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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 29
Page 32
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. C
land, They offered as evidegce forged
birth certificates provided by detain
spy apparatus.
Sports were issued, and Morris
“Cohen, recruited by the Conimunists
“while he gwas a student at Mississippi
Mieco Sate in the carly THOSE ae
tived in London with his wife in 1953.
Under thKroger alias, they set up a book
business near Trafalgar Square as a
‘cover, but in reality transmitted via
radio from their home top secret informa-
tion gathered by Konon Molody, alias
Gordon Lonsdale, another Soviet agent.
The British arrested Lonsdale and the
Krogers in 1961, Lonsdale was sen-
tenced to 25 years and the Krogers to 20.
But Lonsdale was released on April 22,
1965, in exchange for Grenville Wynne,
a British agent the Sovicts had appre-
hended.
Why do the Sovicts want so desper-
ately to get the Cohen-Krogers back to
Moscow? Philby says the American
couple are innocent, which, of course, is
ridiculous.
Exchanging Spies
There are several possible reasons.
Colonel Rudolph Abel, now chicf of the
Anglo-American section of the KGB, is
extremely fond of the Cohens. They
worked under him in New York,'and a
warm friendship developed. Abel got
himself exchanged for Gary Powers. He
yot Lonsdale, who also worked for him
in New York for a short time, exchanged
for Grenville Wynne. He now wants to
exchange the Krogers for Gerald Brooke,
an English schoolmaster recruited by the
NTS to distribute anti-Soviet tracts in
Russia. The KGB, reportedly tipped off
by Philby, picked Brooke up at once,
sentenced him to five years in jail.
‘The British are not willing, and that’s
why Philby is offering to sweeten the
pot by renouncing publication of his
memoirs.
The Russians know that if they can-
not engineer the exchange of the Krogers
for someone or something, there is a
very good chance the U.S. will ask for
the extradition of the Krogers after they
have beén} released in Britain. The
couple could then be tried in the U.S.
on a number of charges and undoubtedly
sentenced to further imprisonment, an
action not considered too healthy for the
morale of Soviet spies in the field.
There is always the danger that after
20 years in jail, one of the Krogers will
Dreakhiwn, confess or defetr“Coithel
i,
c ~
Atel wants to play it sate. He wants his
old friends, members of his Sht-sjy-up-
Paratus secure and sound in Moscow
where they can help him teach a new
batch of spies.
The British, however, are not willing
to trade two major Soviet agents for 80,-
000 words by Harold Philby. So unless
{ithe CIA and the FBI move in on the
deal and pressure the British, Philby’s
memoirs will shortly see the light of
print.
When that happens, red faces will
surely rise in-Washington, for “Casa-
nova” Philby names the men with whom
he was involved, men he blithely and
easily deceived, men he politely refers to
in his memoirs as “colleagues.”
Surely for those in our intelligence
atcrnity, that will constitute the final
The “Krogers'
ad
as Red spies, are shown in happier days.
Rts
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